Sinopec's southwestern bureau achieves high production

Workers debug a device at a natural gas well developed by Sinopec's Southwest China Petroleum Bureau. [Photo by Yuan Peng / For China Daily]

The Sinopec Southwest China Petroleum Bureau, a subsidy of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, or Sinopec – the world's largest petroleum refiner – has produced more than 90 billion cubic meters of natural gas over the past 40 years, according to the latest statistics from the bureau.

This is equivalent to 82 million metric tons of oil, which means a reduction of 100 million tons in carbon dioxide emissions.

The bureau is currently home to three major production areas, namely Yuanba Gas Field, Western Sichuan Gas Field and Weirong Shale Gas Field. Its daily natural gas output exceeds 23 million cubic meters, which is enough to meet the daily gas demands of 44 million households.

The gas reservoirs in the fields developed by the Southwest China Petroleum Bureau are mainly buried at extreme depths or in shale beds, making drilling and construction difficult and risky, according to officials of the Southwest China Petroleum Bureau.

In recent years, the bureau has created a series of techniques and core technologies for the efficient and sustainable development of high-sulfur biohermal gas fields and deep shale gas fields, serving as a model for the development of similar gas fields at home and abroad.

Yuanba Gas Field, the world's first large high-sulfur biohermal gas field with a depth of more than 7,000 meters, produced more than 25.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas between 2014, when it started operating, and June 20.

The bureau is currently working to increase the production capacity of the Western Sichuan Gas Field and the Weirong Shale Gas Field in an effort to increase its annual natural gas production capacity to 10 billion cubic meters this year.